As you can see from my previous posts, my friends and I enjoy creating worlds. Most of the time it’s not really collaborative in the broader sense; that is, the gamemaster creates the world and the players create characters that imply certain things about the world and expand its borders.

An interesting approach is that of Evil Hat’s The Dresden Files game. In it, the players collaborate with the gamemaster to create the city that’s the setting for the game. We tried it once, but most of the players were not inclined to participate, or didn’t have the time. So it ended up that the GM and I did most of the creation. Each player has the opportunity to contribute locations, people, myths and monsters to the city. Character creation in DFRPG also relies on cross-pollination. Players include previous adventures with other characters in the group, so there’s a natural reason for them to associate with one another.

Borders of Despair was another collaborative world. Scott and I worked on it together. The intention, I believe, was for us to trade off running the game and playing in the world, creating a truly shared world.

I like the idea Dave commented back on my Borders of Despair post, that of modular world planning, and CD Gallant-King’s idea of starting small and only building out immediate surroundings as the players proceed.

These days I do my world-building in my novels, but it’s always fun to see it in action in our games.

The whole point of this month’s journey into my world of roleplaying gaming is telling stories. Whether it’s mildew emanating from the wet dungeon walls or swashbuckling paragoblins dueling to the death, hacking and slashing through ranks of gnolls or parrying and thrusting with clever words, the shared story is the thing.

Roleplaying is a unique form of game in this respect. A group of people build from a starting premise concocted by the gamemaster (or found in a purchased adventure book), each adding her or his own personal touch to the experience. No two gaming sessions, even with the same printed adventure, will be the same. A party consisting of all gnomes will be quite a different party than one mixing a half-orc barbarian, an elf ranger, a human bard and a tiefling sorcerer. Each character/race combination brings special skills and abilities, just as each player does.

I’m a fiction writer, so when I play a game, I like to keep up with what happened each session. In the past, I kept a running log using a (tape, later digital) recorder and transcribed them. That sounds a bit obsessive to me even now, but I saw it as a way to preserve the story, to relive good times with close friends in the future.

If you’ve never played a roleplaying game before, don’t dismiss it out of hand as something only for children. Especially if you like story, you should join the group creative experience. You’ll have a great time!

One of my favorite games of all time has to be the Leviathan campaign, run by my friend Scott. It’s probably one of the longest campaigns we played as well. As Scott described it in his original document from 2003, “Adventure in a world of merchant princes, pirate treasure, ancient ruins, noble orders, and the all too ready death that lurks below the surface of the world sea.” The campaign had a swashbuckling, Renaissance feel to it, personified by my character, a bard named Rafael Ceurdepyr (about whom more in R is for Rafael).

The rules we used included action points, a number of points usable to reroll low dice results or perform amazing stunts; low magic; starting backgrounds, such as aristocrat, criminal, rascal, soldier, street rat or student; lives, meaning each player began with 1d4+2 “lives,” representing “your chances to cheat death and recover from wounds that would otherwise be fatal,” although only the gamemaster knew how many lives the character has; and gunpowder weapons. Races allowed were humans, the predominant race; half-elves; goblins; paragoblins, which was Rafael’s race, resulting from a human-goblin interbreeding; and ogrun, somewhat similar to half-orcs.

House Rayale

Here’s Scott’s description of the present world, 2500 years after the great Cataclysm:

Seven Great Houses and the Parliament govern the Archipelago Concord States. The Seven Great Houses are more businesses than aristocratic dynasties, although they are that as well. A merchant patriarch, who speaks for the House and sets policy, rules each. The House Rayale is the largest and most powerful, being the house that successfully crossed the Sundering Sea, it now enjoys a near monopoly on trade in Dwarven made goods. The House Merlyean is the next most powerful, and the primary maker of ships in the Human-Goblin controlled States. The House Grumalaniakin is the only Goblin Great House, it is the primary source of chemical substances, dyes, medicines, and plant based oils. The Sunrod House controls the few mining operations in the Shallow Sea, as well as most of the heavy industry, it is the arch-rival of the House Rayale. The most peaceful house is the Granmar. The Granmar House controls the most land, and manages the vast agricultural lands of the larger islands. The House Hienter specializes in fishing and harvesting the sea while its major ally,the smallest house, House Ferinne deals in light industry and various types of trade.

The houses are a constantly shifting battleground. Rarely does it come to outright war, but each house maintains its own militias and armed fleets. They vie for power over the lesser houses, the city-states they do not control out right, and the Trade Guilds. Espionage, assassination, betrayal, and subversion are the common tools of the merchant patriarchs.

The Parliament serves as a check on the Great Houses, although a small one. Given the power to tax and regulate trade the Parliament sets tariffs and grants rights to shipping lanes, new islands, and various other resources. These various sets of licenses and taxes serve as fertile ground for pirating and smuggling, for there is always profit to be had in skirting tariffs. This is a trade and tactic well known to the Major Houses. The Parliament is made of the Lesser Houses, most of whom rule the city-states or various subsidiary industries for the Great Houses, the major guild representatives, and officials from the Faith of Alyander. The Elven Fleets also send representatives, always human in their hire, to Parliament to speak on their behalf, but they have no formal vote. The Parliament meets once every three years, at which time it elects a Prime Minister and a Cabinet who do most of the business of Parliament. Admission to Parliament is made by petition to Parliament based on societal influence and must be ratified by a majority vote. That rarely happens

The main islands of the ACS are the Six Sons, a chain of large islands all but completely dominated by the Great Houses. At any given time there are as many as 100 smaller islands, some equaling the smaller of the Six Sons down to a few miles across, that are also nominally controlled by the ACS, its companies, houses, or members.

Outside the ACS, within the Shallow Sea, are several Freeholds, the largest of which is Nan. It, and others like it, are seen as pirates and outlaws by the Great Houses, but are often employed in their schemes. In reality Nan and its fellows are haven for free enterprise of one sort or another, at best, and petty slaver kingdoms at worst.

The Dead Isles are the remains of the Gnome Republic. For generations no one lived there. In the last 100 years they have been colonized, but little is known about them in the ACS.

The Elf Fleets travel the world, never allowing a member of another race to travel beyond the Shallow Sea with them. Occasionally large fortress-towns enter the Shallow Sea, and rumors of larger ones remain. The elves are on friendly terms with many of the freeholds as well as the ACS. Captains and Admirals govern them, in a semi-informal military structure. They never set foot on land voluntarily. When elves set foot on lnad involuntarily it usually precipitates into suicide, both of the elf in question and the town or ship that harbored his tormenters. Elves are as fierce as any when it comes to dealing with pirates, but they will in no wise tolerate being taken to land. To force an elf to land is to invite the wrath of every elf in the Shallow Sea, and perhaps beyond. Many wise men know to leave the elves alone if they wish it, but only fools ignore them.

The Dwavenholms across the Sundering Sea are dug into the Last Land and are vast and ancient. Their rule, customs, and laws are largely unknown to the human culture, and only speculations are possible. Some form of clan and guild hybrid rules, dominated by great Patriarchs and Keepers of Tradition.

There are many small islands that are home to tribal cultures at the edges of the Shallow Sea. Most of the races there are Human, Orc, or Goblinoid.

“[Horror fiction] shows us that the control we believe we have is purely illusory, and that every moment we teeter on chaos and oblivion.”― Clive Barker

Fantasy is not the only genre represented in roleplaying. Probably my favorite genre is horror gaming, as you know if you read my post C is for Call of Cthulhu.

Any game can have elements of horror. In fact, it could be argued that by definition Dungeons and Dragons is a horror game, because of the presence of the classic monster tropes such as vampires, ghosts, specters, werewolves, ghouls, skeletons and zombies.

But a horror game is distinguished by its tone. The typical D&D game is about wading in and dispatching the monsters as quickly as possible, without any sense of fear and trepidation. A gamemaster running a horror-flavored game sets the tone by emphasizing the atmosphere, by engendering uncertainty in his players about the outcome of their characters. If he knows his players well (and depending on the level of trust in the group), he can prey on their fears by including certain triggers in the gameplay.

Many of the horror games in which I’ve played have been set in modern times: Call of Cthulhu, The Dresden Files (maybe not entirely horror), and Unknown Armies come immediately to mind. In these games, the character doesn’t usually have amazing strength or dexterity. Although she may have a limited power or ability, she’s more vulnerable and thus more susceptible to the loss of control mentioned in the Clive Barker quote.

What do you find scary in a roleplaying game? Did I leave out your favorite? Comment below!

Dungeons & Dragons game in progress. Miniatures from Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures Game and others on Master Maze scenery by Dwarven Forge. Around the dungeon can be seen many multi-sided dice, a character sheet (bottom left) and a D&D manual (top right). Note that the circular template at the bottom is not from Dungeons & Dragons, but rather is from Warhammer 40,000. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Since I have people visiting my blog who may not know much about roleplaying gaming, I thought I’d give a quick explanation. I used a great website, d20 PFSRD, as a reference here.

I use the term “fantasy gaming” to include games such as Pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons. These games are generally set in a quasi-medieval world, usually with varying levels of magic, fantastical races (elves, dwarves, halflings) and strange creatures (unicorns, basilisks, satyrs). Frequently the backstories of these worlds include at least one apocalypse or tales of destroyed kingdoms that provide a reason for ruins and dungeons for exploration.

Players take on the roles of adventuring heroes familiar to viewers of The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings movies, such as barbarian, bard, cleric, druid, fighter, monk, paladin, ranger, rogue, sorcerer and wizard. The fighter is the typical hero who uses a sword, axe or other weapon to defeat enemies (like Boromir). Similar to the fighter is the barbarian (think Conan the Barbarian), but like the Incredible Hulk, s/he gets additional powers when going into a rage. The monk is a highly-disciplined martial artist whose body is a weapon. The rogue (called the thief in old Dungeons and Dragons editions) is a versatile character, master of sneaking (like Bilbo in The Hobbit), finding and disarming traps and unlocking door. The classic hunter and tracker is the ranger (think of Strider before the hobbits knew him as Aragorn). The bard (one of my favorite classes) is a charismatic character with some performance skills through which s/he can cast spells that help her/him manipulate, persuade and inspire. The paladin (another of my favorite classes) is a righteous and faithful fighter dedicated to battling evil in the name of her/his deity and casting some spells. The cleric serves her/his deity through might in arms and in spells, especially spells to turn and destroy undead. The druid is a worshiper of forces of nature and a protector of the wild with abilities of turning into a wild animal, as well as communing with an animal companion. The sorcerer is a spellcaster whose arcane ability comes from within, usually because of some magical bloodline. Last, but not least, is the wizard, a character whose magic use comes from study.

I’ve talked about the characters and not much else, so I’ll continue this in the next installment. What’s your favorite character to play? Comment below!